Endgame gearing in FFXIV

[Shurrikhan]

Why limit it to Savage?

Because that's literally what tier sets are in every iteration in which they've been produced? They're rewards from a single avenue of content. So unless you're honestly going to tell me that no one's going to get ticked with weekly-tome gear being upgradeable to Savage ilvl and then having performance-increasing set bonuses atop them...

And why relegate effects to a class's level?

I've no idea what you're referring to here. There is neither mention of classes nor job/class level in my post. I've simply noted that if you want the tier sets to have any performance impact, that impact will be equivalent to some further degree of ilvl.

If gear offers nothing other then ilvl you'll only ever chase the highest main DPS stat.

Gear offers throughput. You will choose whatever gives the most throughput for one's situation. The key, then, is the situation. That "choice" of throughput remains just as static, dull, and non-optional regardless of whether that throughput comes from raw stats or tier effects so long as there is no situational swing in its value. If there is no variance in situation, neither is there even any significant pretense of choice, only obfuscation that favors theorycrafters over those who prefer immersion (to be, at best, trapped by the shiny skill bonus worth less than the raw stats).

If I'm in a constant uptime fight, I'm going to choose double Jump damage over 5% more primary stat... not because it's more interesting or because it can burst harder, but simply because Jump makes up more than 5% of my sustained damage.

Only once there's something (say, a DPS check) I actually need Stardiver or DFD, etc., to burst down would I possibly have a choice, between sustained/total damage (and therefore fight clear speed) and burst damage (and therefore fight clear reliability). Until then... nothing has changed.

Is that what you want? One size fits all BiS set?

I want the most interestingly crafted damage profile the devs can manage for each job. Assuming they provide the job that best design they can manage, a tier set can only ever make it worse by adjusting that profile.

Everything is relative. If I'm dealing more Nostrand damage, I am, in relative and perhaps absolute terms (i.e., compared to just taking further primary/secondary stat, if anything is allowed to compete with these tier set items), dealing less damage with all else.

I'd rather have it just done well from the start than have it chipped at to make room for a future improvement that will last only a tier's time or to have it later chipped away at by that tier set.


That, or we need to actually deal with the disease, not just the symptoms. You need, then, to confront the homogeneity of content. But even that arguably doesn't leave you with true choice so much as just horizontal progression and a larger span of "good enough" pieces with added flavor text. I'd guess that's still probably worthwhile, but I could also see why that'd be too inefficient a prospect to sell to most.